Worldwide C-17 Availability to Support 82nd Airborne Operations from Fort Bragg/Pope Field

The Global Response Force (GRF) must respond to a variety of potential missions across arange of military operations. In addition to traditional missions, GRF is the force called on in any national threat necessitating rapid response. Recent defense guidance further expanded possible roles for the GRF by increasing the types and numbers of missions they will be called on to undertake, thus challenging existing ways those forces operate. RAND Arroyo Center was tasked to provide operational and organizational analysis of the many challenges facing the 82nd Airborne Division GRF. This report focuses on the availability of C-17 aircraft to support the GRF, a subset of the research of the RAND fiscal year 2014 study Enabling the Global Response Force to Meet Future Needs. The purpose of the RAND research presented here was to determine the availability of C-17s deployed worldwide to assist the GRF with rapid response to a national threat. This research represents only part of the overall research effort. Research dealing with other challenges facing the GRF can be found in John Gordons work on scenarios for future 82nd Airborne operations and Christopher G. Pernin et al., Enabling the Global Response Force: Access Strategies for the 82nd Airborne Division, RAND Corporation, RR-1161-A. The findings presented here should be of interest to defense policymakers, the air mobility community (specifically, Air Force Air Mobility Command), and U.S. Air Force and Army planners.